Re: st: New version of -descsave- on SSC

[Richard Williams <Richard.A.Williams.5@ND.edu>]

At 12:35 PM 4/27/2005 +0100, Roger Newson wrote:
> Hello All
>
> Thanks to Kit Baum, a new version of the -descsave- package is now 
> available for download on SSC. In Stata, use the -ssc- command to do this.
Thanks Roger.  Incidentally, this brings up an issue that I wish there was 
a more elegant way to deal with.  When Stata does an update, the old 
programs just sort of disappear, e.g. version 9 users won't be using the 
Stata 8 version of -mlogit-, they'll just automatically have the new 
one.  User-written routines don't have such a luxury, and so as a result, 
you see things like old programs being re-released with new names, e.g. 
prog becomes prog7 or whatever.  So, you might have a bunch of different 
programs called -prog- floating around, one for V. 6, another for V. 7, 
etc, along with otherwise identical programs called prog6, prog7, etc.  I 
don't know of any convenient way around this but it would be nice if 
updating user programs behaved more like updating Stata is, i.e. you get 
the version of the program that is appropriate for your version of Stata 
without having to re-release old programs under new names.

I'm also working on a user-written Stata 8 program, which, in a few months, 
I imagine I will rewrite for Stata 9.  I'm trying to write this program so 
it can be easily supported by Long and Freese's -spost- routines, but if 
the program has different names depending on the version of Stata you are 
using then support will be harder (e.g. there might be a -prog-, which gets 
renamed -prog8- and is replaced by another -prog- written for Stata 9, 
which eventually gets renamed -prog9- and is replaced by a -prog- written 
for Stata 10, etc.)  Maybe I need to tell them to reserve a string of names 
for me for future compatibility! (e.g. prog, prog7 prog8, prog9, prog10, 
whatever.)


-------------------------------------------
Richard Williams, Notre Dame Dept of Sociology
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